Want vs Need

Shane Presley

Shane Presley

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Jan 12, 2011
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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
www.bssproductions.com
I am currently locked in a battle (with myself) over a few items that I am not sure if it's what I want , vs what my company needs... I was wondering if anyone had any good advice on how to convience one's self on what thier business actually needs, vs, what one would want... I guess one way is to look at sub rentals, and determine what I am cross renting (if anything). Any suggestions
 
Re: Want vs Need

I often have the same problem.

You have to determine business vs hobby.

Hobby is something you like to do because it makes you happy - profits don't matter.

Business is there to make money and should not be affected by your personal feelings. I don't buy gear unless I need it - but I rent it a few times first. If I need to rent it more than a couple times a month, I'll buy it.

Ask someone unbiased (maybe like a business owner or business professor) what they think. Tell them the pros and cons of whatever you want to buy and any other background they need, and they'll tell you whether it will be a good business decision or whether it's just another toy.

It all comes down to ROI.
 
Re: Want vs Need

If this item will increase your revenue - meaning customers will pay you more for item XYZ rather than you just want it because it will sound better to you, and your hard and soft costs (rental fees plus logistical costs of picking up/returning) for the item will exceed the purchase price over some interval of time (a lot of people use 3 years), then owning makes financial sense.

If it won't make you more money, you only need it once a year, etc., then it probably falls in the want category.
 
Re: Want vs Need

I don't think you can always draw a clear line of separation between want and need for this sort of stuff. There are lots of valid non-monetary reasons why you might be interested in something.

Making money is nice, but I'm willing to sacrifice some profit margin in exchange for a pleasant experience. Having good gear makes the work easier and can even lead to more enjoyable clients. If the only thing any of the small sound co's cared about was ROI we wouldn't have half the stuff we own, and there would be a whole lot more SOS rigs in service competing for corporate gigs.

Sure, you might classify my view as a "hobby" outlook, but IMHO we spend enough hours of our lives working that we might as well enjoy them.

Want the ROI answer? You don't need it, keep what you have for the next 20 years.
Want the answer that will make your gigs more enjoyable? You might need it.....
 
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Re: Want vs Need

I still stick to my definition of need. You're describing "wants", which is perfectly fine by me - I have lots of things that are "wants", and virtually all of us have at least some wants in our rigs. They're definitely not "needs", though.
 
Re: Want vs Need

I think both TJ, and Jeff hit some of my concerns / "sore points" on the head... When I have to rent a piece of gear ( or several), this requires some logistical steps, in the gig process (picking up, dropping off) - pricing factors, and also the knowledge of the piece of gear itself. As an example, if I was being asked to provide a digital console that I had no working knowledge of, yet I could rent it... where does that leave me when a B.E. has a question, or asks me to route something etc...if it was something I owned, that would be different. Part B of this is what Jeff is saying - I have some pride in my business being able to offer the best equipment I can afford. If I can "afford" to buy a certain piece of gear, that isn't nessesarily being 100% paid for in a rental, but it's making my life, or experience in doing the show better, then for sure it's a "want", but something that might be justified... I appreciate all your views - it'll help me through my crisis, since these purchases I'm contimplating are not cheap (for my business size).
PS - where the H@#$ is spell check in this new forum...lol - sorry if there are errors.
SP
 
Re: Want vs Need

Another thing I've learnt as a smaller company in a tiny part of the world is often you can save heaps by buying second hand, perhaps a three or four year old big ticket item becomes a lot better of a business investment than taking the depreciation hit of brand new.
 
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